How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff (Puffin, £12.99) Age: 14+ Contrasting the extremes of existence in what is both a utopia and a dystopia, How I Live Now is a story of growing up, with a powerful love affair between two cousins, Daisy and Edmund, at its heart. When Daisy arrives in England to stay with her cousins, she finds a new way of life with a refreshing absence of rules and expectations. Above all, she finds Edmund. But when war breaks out, the two teenagers are swept apart. Caring for her younger cousin, Piper, Daisy faces death and destruction before she finds her way back home; back to Edmund and the enchanted world they had left behind. Buy How I Live Now at Amazon.co.uk

Four novels have made the shortlist for this year's prize - but there is still time for young, aspiring critics to give their views and be in with a chance of winning a set of all the longlisted books for their schools.

Millions, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan, £9.99) Age: 9+ When a bag stuffed full of notes is flung from a train, Damien and his older brother Anthony are rich - but it'll only be for a few days, until the new currency comes in. Suddenly they can buy anything except the one thing they really want - to bring their mother back. And money brings problems, too. Paying out a tenner just for the loan of a bike or an extra pudding at school creates its own inflation. Matters are confused further by Damien's obsession with saints and Anthony's with real estate. Cottrell Boyce says some serious things about happiness and need, but avoids preaching in a deliciously funny story given depth by a tinge of bitter sweetness. Buy Millions at Amazon.co.uk

No Shame, No Fear, by Ann Turnbull (Walker, £5.99) Age: 10+ A novel of huge integrity told in a fittingly simple voice, No Shame, No Fear relates the struggle of the Quakers in the mid-17th century. Susanna's parents have stood firm for their cause, suffering humiliation and persecution. Susanna goes out to work to keep the family going and meets others fighting for the cause, including her new mistress, who runs a printing press. Susanna, too, learns to fight for what she believes in and to find a courage she did not know she possessed. Turnbull has written a powerful and moving book that never becomes shrill; she creates a past that is wholly credible and sets out a thoughtful blueprint for tolerance. Read a reviewBuy No Shame, No Fear at Amazon.co.uk

Last Train from Kummersdorf, by Leslie Wilson (Faber, £9.99) Age: 11+ With their contrasting backgrounds, Hanno and Effie are unlikely friends; but when circumstances force them together they discover that they must trust each other if they are to survive. It is Germany in 1945, and the children join the hundreds of others snatching survival from the remnants of war. The search for food is always paramount, but all decisions depend on learning whom you can trust and how much of yourself you can reveal. Slowly and touchingly, Hanno and Effie's friendship grows, making this a story of warmth and hope despite the ravages of war from which it has sprung. Buy Last Train from Kummersdorf at Amazon.co.uk

What's it all about?

The history, the prize, the judgesA tradition of finding new voices in children's fiction has distinguished the prize since it was founded in 1967. This year's judges are Mark Haddon, Adèle Geras and Marcus Sedgwick. The shortlist will be published in September and the winner announced on October 9.

Reviews can also still be written of the other titles which appeared on the longlist.

Murkmere, by Patricia Elliott (Hodder, £5.99) Age: 10+ Summoned to Murkmere Hall to be the companion to Leah, the Master's ward, Aggie finds herself caught up in a world of intrigue and mystery. Having always been frightened of the Birds, knowing them to be the most divine and sacred ofcreatures, at Murkmere Hall Aggie finds they are seen in quite a different way. Her unsettling experiences are made more chilling by the sinister, ever-present figure of Silas the steward, who seems always to know too much, and especially by Leah, who appears completely unfettered by rules. Against a chilling background, Elliott tells a story of transformation and the importance of making a bid for freedom. Buy Murkmere at Amazon.co.uk

Private Peaceful, by Michael Morpurgo (Collins, £10.99) Age: 10+ Morpurgo pulls no punches when writing about the folly and barbarity of war. Through the long watches of one night, his young hero recounts the story of his life with a sharp picture of the social structure of England's countryside before the first world war. On one hand, it's the rural idyll of woods and quiet lanes, where children enjoy great freedom; but it's also a world of rigid social hierarchies, with the poor dependent on the whims of the landowners. For the narrator and his brother, it is this helpless dependency that has sent them to the war. A searingly honest account of the brutality of command and its tragic consequences. Read a reviewBuy Private Peaceful at Amazon.co.uk

Kissing the Rain, by Kevin Brooks (Chicken House, £12.99) Age: 13+ Overweight, a pawn in his parents' dubious way of life, 15-year-old Moo has always been an outsider: he has lived his life on the margins, never quite able to fit in, his life a barrage of bullying. When he witnesses an incident of savage road rage, Moo finds himself drawn into a complicated police plot with real danger at every turn. How can he discover whom he can trust - how much he can trust himself, even? Moo's confusion, and the way in which he sorts out the mess around him, is told in a powerful, colloquial first-person narrative that gives it absolute authenticity. Read a reviewBuy Kissing the Rain at Amazon.co.uk

Useful Idiots, by Jan Mark (David Fickling, £12.99) Age: 13+ Mark's dystopian futurist setting raises questions about how we see history and the role that secrets from the past have in the present. The UK is partly underwater as a result of climate change. Archaeology has become an obscure study, because of the damaging truths it may reveal. When a storm uncovers a skull in the watery wastelands, it brings the old and new worlds into direct conflict; and Merrick, the young archaeologist asking all the questions, is at risk. Juxtaposing the underdeveloped landscape where the remnants of the "Inglish" live and the hi-tech cities of the new civilisation, this is a thoughtful black comedy about greed, prejudice and the idiocy of governments. Read a reviewBuy Useful Idiots at Amazon.co.uk